Last Updated on July 2, 2025
California’s revenge porn law is detailed under the state Penal Code section 647(j)(4) (PC). This law differs from those involving criminal invasion of privacy 647(i) and 647(j), because whereas those criminal charges prohibit making videos or photos of someone who expects privacy without their consent, revenge pornography content is typically taken with the consent of the victim, but shared without their permission.
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What is Revenge Porn?
When discussing revenge porn, the first thing you need to understand is what the phrase actually means. While most people think, as the name indicates, that the act has to be done for emotional reasons, under the legal definition, sharing any nude or explicit photos or videos of someone without their knowledge qualifies. So even if the footage is being uploaded for monetary purposes or just to entertain others and there is no emotional reason for the distribution it is still a crime because it is considered non-consensual pornography.
It is worth noting that an image doesn’t need to be uploaded on the internet for the law to have been broken. If a man shares a nude picture of his girlfriend with his friends, he has violated the law.
California Revenge Porn Law: 647(j)(4) (PC)
California law specifically defines this crime as the distribution of an image “of the intimate body part of another identifiable person, or an image depicting them engaged in sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, sexual penetration, or masturbation” when the person in the images expects the content will remain private. In order for the distribution of these explicit images to actually be subject to the law, the person who shares them must know that distributing the image will cause serious emotional harm.
It’s also worth mentioning that the law defines an “intimate body part” as any part of the genitals, anus or breasts of a female -including parts clearly visible through clothing. This means that sharing pictures of a woman in a skimpy bathing suit or underwear could still be against the law, even if they are not what people would normally consider to be “explicit images” as long as the person who shared them knew that doing so could cause serious emotional harm.
Adding Selfies to the Law
It’s worth mentioning that when the law was originally written in 2013, it excluded images taken by the victim. But in 2014, the law was changed to include selfies as well because as more and more people started to take nude images of themselves to share with their lovers, the original law ended up not covering the majority of revenge porn. In fact, at the time of the revision, it was estimated that up to 80% of all sexual images shared without consent of the person depicted were actually selfies taken by the person in the image.
Under the revised version of the law, sharing a nude or explicit image of someone without their knowledge is now a misdemeanor, regardless of who took the images. Given that 6% of all ex-partners have uploaded images or video of their partner that would constitute revenge porn, it was important for legislators to close that loophole.
Penalties for Violating California’s Revenge Porn Law
Sharing revenge porn images online, on social media, or even just with friends in person is a misdemeanor offense in California. It is punishable by up to six months in a county jail and $1,000. Anyone charged with a second or subsequent offense, or who shares an image of a minor, will face up to one year in jail.
What to do if You’re Accused of Posting Revenge Porn in Vista, CA
Anyone accused of violating California’s revenge porn law should immediately contact a sex crimes defense lawyer before speaking to the police as it is surprisingly easy to harm your case while trying to defend yourself -particularly because a critical part of proving these charges is to show that you knew sharing the images could cause the victim serious emotional harm.
Even if you had the alleged victim’s permission to share the images, unless you have a signed model release form and proof of the alleged victim’s age and identity, it will be difficult to prove that you had such an agreement. It is even more critical to refuse to speak to a criminal defense attorney if the victim was under the age of 18 because this means you could also be accused of distribution of child pornography.
Are Revenge Porn Laws Constitutional?
While most people agree that someone can suffer serious emotional harm if their nude or sexually explicit photos or videos are shared online, the First Amendment’s free speech protections make limiting the sharing of content difficult to balance with the need to protect an individual’s privacy. While the Supreme Court has still not taken any cases on this specific issue, New Jersey and Texas have both had laws struck down in higher courts because they were too vague.
But even if the Supreme Court does take on such a case and agrees that these types of laws are generally a violation of the First Amendment, California’s California’s revenge porn law may still remain protected. That’s because our state’s law is different because rather than just stating that it is illegal to upload a private picture of someone without their consent, the violator must also have added the image with the purpose of causing emotional distress to the victim and the victim must actually have suffered emotional harm as a result. Because this law is more specific, it has so far held up to scrutiny while other state’s revenge porn laws have been struck down.
That being said, while the Supreme Court hasn’t made any rulings on the matter as of yet, it seems likely that the Supreme Court would be willing to infringe on a person’s right to free speech if it meant protecting another person from having these types of private photos or videos uploaded without their consent -especially if the law had a clause requiring the uploader intended to cause emotional distress and the victim needed to suffer emotional distress.
Is Face-Swaping Porn Legal?
Not as of January 1, 2025. On this date, a second section will be added to 647(j)(4) (PC), denoted under subsection (ii), that will cover AI-generated sexually explicit content. Like the existing revenge porn law, this section requires the material to show a real person who is likely to suffer serious emotional distress from the sharing of the content and, if they are over 18, actually cause them distress. If the individual depicted is a minor, they need not be emotionally impacted.
If you have any questions about the California revenge porn law or need help defending yourself against such accusations, please call (760) 643-4050 to schedule a free initial consultation.
